The current Common Council president, the former president and a longtime Common Council staffer will face off Tuesday in a primary election to represent Madison’s southwest side on the Common Council.
Sheri Carter, who represented District 14 for four terms before redistricting drew her into District 10, is challenging incumbent Yanette Figueroa-Cole, currently serving her second term. So is Lisa Veldran, who oversaw the Common Council office for nearly 25 years.
Figueroa-Cole defeated Carter by just 82 votes in 2023.
Meet the candidates
Yanette Figueroa-Cole, the first Latina common council president, moved to Madison from Puerto Rico in 1991.
She said she initially ran for the council out of a sense of community service.
“From a very early age, my parents instilled in us a duty to serve. We came from a family with very limited resources, but that didn’t matter when it came to helping others,” she said.
She said her top priorities as an alder have been affordable housing, reckless driving and support for immigrants.
“Speeding on city roads is the number one issue I hear about from constituents, and I’d bet every alder is hearing the same thing,” she said.
She said Common Council doesn’t necessarily have a direct role in immigration, but can support those who do.
“The fear immigrant communities live with is constant. People worry about not being there to pick their kids up from school. They live with that fear every day,” she said. “The answers aren’t going to come from City Hall. They’re going to come from grassroots organizations—Centro Hispano, Jewish Social Services, Voces de la Frontera. Our role is to support them.”
Sheri Carter represented the south side from 2015 until 2023, when new district boundaries moved much of the area she had represented into District 14 and left her in District 10.
She said helping secure $1.5 million in funding to improve Penn Park was one of her proudest accomplishments during that time, as well as supporting a revitalization of the South Park Street corridor that included championing the Madison College Goodman South Campus, which opened in 2019.
She listed affordable housing, public safety and fiscal responsibility among her top priorities.
“For the city budget, we need to look at essential services, period. And once we get past that, then let’s see what we have,” she said.
Lisa Veldran worked behind the scenes of the Common Council as a legislative administrative assistant and legislative services manager from 1997 until she retired in 2021. She supported the council in many ways, including production of meeting agendas and publishing of proposed ordinances and resolutions.
“I’ve worked with over 100 City Council members,” she said. “I know what an effective alder does, and a big part of that is communication—consistently engaging with constituents in a variety of ways and truly listening to them.”
She said fiscal responsibility is her top priority.
“Budgets are policy documents,” she said. “They tell us what’s important to the city’s residents. Step one should always be: what does it cost to maintain quality basic services?”
On affordable housing
All three candidates identified affordable housing as a top priority, but differed slightly in their approach to the issue.
“We are behind on building housing. Period,” Figueroa Cole said. “We need all types of housing—low-income, workforce, ownership, rentals. We need stock.”
“I’m not convinced that just building apartments is the answer,” Veldran said. “We need to create incentives for developers to build more condos so people can actually buy a home and start building wealth.”
She noted especially the difficulty in building that wealth among communities of color.
“There’s no entry point for people of color to own property in this city,” she said. “That’s a real problem.”
“Affordable housing doesn’t always have to be a 15-story apartment building,” Carter said. “It can be a variety of things. So really, let’s look at what other options do we have for affordable housing? … Can we build some duplexes? Can we rehab existing housing and make those affordable?”
“The city doesn’t build housing—developers do,” Figueroa-Cole said. “But we can shape policy so that when they take affordable housing funds, they’re required to include 30%, 60%, and 80% affordability levels in their developments.”
She also said zoning policies that were designed for “redlining and segregation” should be updated.
On budget priorities
Veldran said the city should focus on “basic services” and let Dane County take on some of the burden.
“City residents already pay into the county budget—we should be getting more out of it,” she said.
She’s been frustrated with the way the council has allocated funds in recent years.
“The city keeps finding creative ways to add fees to people’s bills instead of having honest conversations about priorities. That’s not truthful budgeting—that’s just kicking the can down the road,” she said. ““We need to be making decisions that reflect the priorities of residents, not just city leadership … The focus has to be on basic services first. If we can’t maintain quality essential services, we let everyone down.”
“Not every project is essential,” Carter said. “For example, we’re still doing flood mitigation. When was the flood? 2018? There are things that we really need to concentrate on and finish.”
On constituent engagement
Both Veldran and Carter said Figueroa-Cole has not been adequately engaged in the district.
“I don’t need an absent alder. They represent the district, and that’s where they need to be,” Veldran said. She said she’s sympathetic to Figueroa-Cole’s additional responsibilities as council president.
“Being Council President is a lot of work, but that can’t come at the expense of representing your district. You have to be able to do both,” she said.
“One of the things that I believe in is making sure that the community’s voices are heard on the council floor,” Carter said. “And one of the things that I look at when I look at District 10, which is several neighborhoods, of course, but is the representative bringing the voices of their constituents to the council floor? And I don’t see that.”
On Common Council decorum
All three candidates said recent Common Council proceedings have been marred by personal conflicts and grievance, and decorum could improve.
“As one of my neighbors said to me, ‘The “(Real) Housewives of Madison has come to the Common Council.’ And I hate to say it, but I think my neighbor summed it up,” Carter said. “I do believe that our mayor has to take more control of the floor … Quite frankly, I was waiting for someone to take off a shoe and hurl it across the room because it has gotten that bad.”
“Most of the Council comes prepared, asks questions, engages with the public, and respects people’s time,” Figueroa-Cole said. “But when you step back, you see the same few people causing disruption over and over again.”
“The Council today is not what it was 10 years ago. It’s become a free-for-all,” Veldran said. “The business of the Council should be doing the people’s work. If you want to have a debate about personal grievances or political statements, schedule a separate meeting.”
What’s next
The primary election is set for Tuesday, February 18. The two candidates with the most votes will move on to the general election on April 1.
The winner will serve only a one-year term, as the Common Council will move to staggered elections next year. Going forward, even-numbered districts will be up for election in even-numbered years and odd-numbered districts in odd-numbered years.
